Eden Richman Week 10 - "Definitions" By Rudy Francisco

     In the poem "Definitions" by Rudy Francisco, words are listed along with Francisco's definition of them. The definitions are not dictionary definitions, but they have emotion to them. Francisco defines each word with a little anecdote that means something to him. He ends the poem by saying "When I was fourteen my friend Adam stole a dictionary from his English class. He brought it home and set it on fire. Since then, I've been defining things for myself."

    The goal of this poem is to give people more emotional connections to the words. The list of words Francisco defines is envy, hate, courage, truth, self, trust, love, faith, failure, victory, and success. All of these words have emotions attached to them, and Francisco tapped into the emotions that the words give rather than an actual definition. 

    My favorite definition of his is the one of success "Waking up at 4 A.M. and going to work with excitement stitched into the fabric of your smile." This really made me remember things I have been excited to do, that other people see as boring or annoying work. I have also always been a believer that success is not defined by how you compare to others, which he seems to agree with.

    The beginning of this poem is very confusing. We get thrown into the definitions without any introduction or explanation as to what he is saying. After the third definition, we start to understand what he is doing with the poem, but I think it would have been much more powerful to put the last stanza at the beginning. This would flow because he says "ever since then I've been defining things for myself" and then he would say what he has been defining. The last stanza does help the poem end off with a bang, but It would have achieved its purpose better at the top.

https://genius.com/Rudy-francisco-definitions-annotated



Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 3, 2021 at 12:54 PM

    Hey Eden! This poem is very thought provoking and interesting. Sometimes I think about how strange words are- they are just random sounds with definitions that we all somehow agreed upon. I think it is really cool how the author made his own definitions of words that are more meaningful to him and connect with his personal experiences.

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  2. Dori BaronDecember 3, 2021 at 9:21 PM

    Hi Eden! Wow, this poem is unique; I've never read one like this before. It's interesting to think about how words can hold so much emotional value and can be defined differently by all of us. I really like that definition of success as well. It shows that success doesn't have to mean earning a lot of money or being famous but rather finding joy in the smaller things. I agree with you that the last stanza probably would have functioned better at the top to prevent confusion.

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  3. AnonymousDecember 4, 2021 at 4:02 PM

    Hey Eden. I really like this poem. I love poems that really make you think and differ from the basic style of writing. It's interesting to think about the words you say everyday, and how you never really think twice about them. Many people don't really give thought to certain words they say, and sometimes they can begin to sound meaningless. This poem is so cool and I love the words the author chose for you to think about and give meaning to.

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  4. AnonymousDecember 5, 2021 at 5:09 PM

    Hi Eden, this was an excellent poem and stellar commentary. I found Francisco's examples of the definitions interesting - they showed me how his mind works. Also, I found that book burning metaphor at the end of the poem to be very powerful. I made me think about how all of our words are human constructs, and every person has their own interpretation of language. As other people said, this poem makes us think deeply about the world around us.

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